Kai Yu is associate professor of education and public policy at Beijing Normal University.

• Chapter One: The Haunting SpecterChapter Two: Key Issues Chapter Three: The PolicyChapter Four: Implementation Stories: Four CasesChapter Five: The ImplementersChapter Six: Cross-case AnalysisChapter Seven: Inclusive Education in a Market Society: Remaking Meritocracy with Chinese Characteristics

Professor Kai Yu richly elucidates this matter in a qualitative study that focuses on the dynamics of school reform in modern Beijing. He effectively employs the conceptualization of the 'street level bureaucrat' whose decisions affect what is and what is not realized. This conceptualization, which came out of examining the implementation of special education reform in one state in the United States over 40 years ago, proves to be equally useful in understanding why central goals for inclusive child-focused education in China and more specifically in Beijing have only been partially realized. . . .[I]t is an important book that nuances what we are learning about school change and deepens our understanding of how capacity, ideology, and local power limit the ability of central authorities to change schools.